It’s likely that James Gray’s Two Lovers would have gotten a lot less attention had it not been for Joaquin Phoenix’s sudden downward spiral, lengthy beard, and subsequent turn to the rap industry, but beyond the Phoenix press fest, this is actually a film worth your attention.

For those who love their thrillers stylish and nail-biting, this film is a must-see. Although it’s now seven years since its release in 2002, many of the respective players in Panic Room have recently come to the fore, which means public interest in this film could well increase. Directed by David Fincher, recently celebrated for his visionary drama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Panic Room is a claustrophobic, home-invasion thriller, focusing on the plight of Meg Altman, a recent and subsequently wealthy divorcee, portrayed by two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster, and her daughter Sarah Altman, played by Kristen Stewart, who has recently achieved renown – especially in teenage circles – for her turn as Bella in Twilight, the film spawn of Stephanie Meyer’s bestselling book franchise. On their first night in their new home, an extensive mansion on New York’s upper-east side, Meg and Sarah face an ordeal against three burglars who are intent on infiltrating the house’s panic room, in which the previous owner has hidden his fortune. The panic room is a safe-haven, specifically designed by security companies for use in the event of a burglary. The film’s tagline aptly puts to us the question: What do you do when your hiding place is their destination?

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s celebrated graphic novel Watchmen has long been considered “unfilmable” for good reason, looking likely to stay that way when you consider the film’s turbulent production history. Before Warner Bros. asked director Zack Snyder to come onboard in 2005, the film had already failed to go into production at the hands of no less than three major studios, three directors and multiple script rewrites. The success of Snyder’s 300, despite its MA15+ rating, gave Warner confidence in the director’s ambitious vision for making the most faithful adaptation possible – rape, child murder, impotence and a naked blue guy all inclusive. The result is a visually striking film that, despite its flaws, is an ominous, provocative and audacious comic book adaptation in the same vein as The Dark Knight…albeit one that is not quite as easy to, well, watch.

The revolutionary guy. You know, the one who’s on all the T-shirts and bags. He’s meant to represent freedom and power to the people? Everyone has a basic idea of who Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara is, or at least what he represents if you’re not into modern history, and the life of the Argentinean guerrilla fighter has been put on film before. Just not on this scale. With a four-hour-plus edit causing a sensation at Cannes last year, Che walked away with a Best Actor win to Benicio Del Toro along with knowing moviegoers can still appreciate epic film.

You know that weird kid you had in your class at school that deliberately wouldn’t talk to anyone, daydream classes away and not care for anything? There’s always one, and in Stella we see the life behind such a character, where not all is as it should be. This film has enjoyed success on the international circuit, and with good reason as it gives us a look into the psyche of an 11 year old girl who doesn’t know what she wants from life – and doesn’t really seem to care.

When films have names like Beautiful, you go along half expecting to see this beauty described in the title, but half expecting it to be the exact opposite. Dean O’Flaherty has created a film here that is the best of both worlds: in some parts it is stunning, the title aptly describing these moments, but in other parts it is just shocking, showing how terribly ugly our world can be. In amongst these stark contrasts is a film that is an intriguing piece of contemporary Australian cinema, with an unexpectedly brutal ending.

Director Prachya Pinkaew is out to prove that anything Hong Kong can do, Taiwan can do better. His case in point is Chocolate; a jaw-dropping martial arts spectacle with so much energy, you could bottle it and sell it to caffeine addicted students. The only side-effect being that it’s lean on plot and character development. But when the action is this astonishing – where fists, feet, guns, knives and swords all fiercely meet in the middle – you haven’t the time to mess about with a fiddley plot, now do you?

Jean-Claude Van Damme. Action hero. The ‘Muscles from Brussels’. If you don’t know the man, you’ve been living under a rock. Bringing his karate skills to mainstream Hollywood (along with director John Woo), Van Damme’s glory days of the 80’s and 90’s were rivalled but rarely conquered. It was inconceivable that his fortune could turn – but as JCVD shows, it did.